指鹿作馬

简 指鹿作马 · 繁 指鹿作馬
Mandarin · pinyin zhǐ lù zuò mǎ

Meanings

  1. to take a deer and call it a horse (idiom); deliberate inversion of the truth
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Characters in this entry

指
zhǐ · finger, toe; point, indicate
鹿
lù · deer; surname; Kangxi radical 198
作
zuò · make; work; compose, write; act, perform
馬
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马
mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–4–4–3 · zhi3 lu4 zuo4 ma3

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Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

指鹿作馬 · find source passages ↗ · 指鹿作马 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zi2 luk6 zok3 maa5

Cantonese word readings for 指鹿作馬. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

指鹿作馬 · zhi3 lu4 zuo4 ma3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 46,960
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record指鹿作馬 指鹿作马 [zhi3 lu4 zuo4 ma3] /to take a deer and call it a horse (idiom); deliberate inversion of the truth/